Glenelg Country School

Danny Walker's childhood environment is shaping his destiny, leading him to put out fires -- both real ones and the figurative ones that occur on lacrosse fields. He's Glenelg Country School's goalkeeper, the grandson of a Baltimore City fire captain and a recently accepted member of the Ellicott City Volunteer Fire Department on Route 103. "As a little kid, I used to go to my grandfather's firefighter reunions and I was always fascinated by the fire engines and the stories he used to tell me," said Walker, a 5-foot-11, 195-pound junior.

Outdoor theater often includes annoyances like bugs attacking the actors as they sweat in the summer heat and children running around on the grass during a play. But members of the Olney Theatre Center's annual Summer Shakespeare group still say performing without walls makes for great theater. "Because it is on a larger scale outdoors, it is really exciting to see what happens," said Benjamin Sands, 21, an actor from Cincinnati who is with the Olney group this summer. Audiences can see the company's production of Amadeus - a departure from its usual focus on Shakespeare - amid the rolling hills and 200-year-old trees of the Glenelg Country School in western Howard County at 8 p.m. today through Sunday.

It takes more than a cheery disposition to be a good camp counselor. Just ask Joey Tangires, 14, and Samantha Hines, 13, both of whom participated in Glenelg Country School's Counselor-in-Training Program last month. "You have to be able to improvise if your plans change," said Joey, who will enter the ninth grade at Glenelg Country next month. Added Samantha, who will begin eighth grade this month at Folly Quarter Middle School: "It's important not to yell when you have to discipline someone because they might get embarrassed.

Glenelg Country School is preparing to celebrate its 50th anniversary next year by giving itself an enormous birthday present. The private school is expanding its facility for ninth- through 12th-graders by 60,000 square feet. Glenelg Country's high school opened 18 years ago, but by 1992, administrators, parents and the board of trustees were planning to expand. "We drew up a document that included this expansion," said Ryland O. Chapman III, headmaster at Glenelg. "It's been officially part of the school's vision for the future for over 10 years."

When Tina Beerman was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2001, her life changed and so did her career. Beerman, a nurse for 25 years and an independent physician consultant, became clinical manager at the Center for Breast Care at Howard County General Hospital. "[My diagnosis] is the complete reason why I do what I do now," Beerman said. While working at the hospital, Beerman organized a Celebrate Life reception last May for breast cancer survivors, complete with food, a DJ, a magician, games and prizes.

Frances W. Mason, a founder of Glenelg Country School and a historic preservationist who later in life worked with Baltimore's arabber community, died Aug. 16 of heart failure at Squirrel Hill, her Ellicott City farm. She was 91. The daughter of a lawyer and a homemaker, the former Frances Wellford was born and raised in Richmond, Va., where she graduated from St. Catherine School in 1938 and made her debut. She was married in 1943 to John Teney "Jack" Mason Jr., and in 1950 they settled on an overgrown 46-acre farm that they named Squirrel Hill.

With sun-dappled trees and excited parents in the background, more than 50 third-graders clad in Colonial garb locked arms and danced to 18th-century music on the grounds of Glenelg Country School. The girls donned white blouses, petticoats with aprons and "mop hats" while the boys wore white shirts, breeches and three-cornered hats. Teachers and parents joined the fun with similar clothing. "One, two, three, four," said music teacher Eline Reis, clapping to the beat and giving dance instructions as the schoolchildren sashayed and skipped with their partners between giggles.

As his yellow bus moved west along narrow Folly Quarter Road toward Glenelg Country School yesterday morning, 15-year-old sophomore Matt Hamel was asleep, his stereo earphones on, blotting out the world. Suddenly, "It felt bumpy. I saw the tree coming, and I tensed up," he said. The bus' right rear wheels had run off the paved surface into rain-softened mud. The vehicle then swerved back to the left, across the double-yellow lines, hitting a thick tree in the 12300 block of Folly Quarter Road, Howard County police said.